The present application claims priority to United Kingdom patent application number 0131088.7, filed Dec. 29, 2001.
The present invention relates to sun blind assemblies, in particular to sun blind assemblies for use in vehicles with glass sunroofs.
Glass sunroofs, by their very nature, allow light, and therefore heat, that is incident on the glass, to be transmitted through the glass and into the vehicle. This results in a temperature increase inside the vehicle, which can be uncomfortable to the vehicle occupants.
To overcome this problem, it is known to include a sun blind located below the sunroof, the sun blind may include apertures which allow a certain percentage of light to be transmitted, and therefore reducing the total amount of transmitted light and hence heat, potentially reducing air-conditioning requirements with potential fuel economy gains.
However, the apertures give the sun blind a striated appearance, i.e. the light from inside the vehicle does not appear of uniform intensity, which some vehicle purchasers find aesthetically undesirable.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sun blind assembly which filters out a percentage of the light and thus heat, but is aesthetically pleasing.
Thus, according to the present invention there is provided a sun blind assembly including an incident surface and a lens element, the incident surface having a reflective region which reflects incident light and a non-reflective region which transmits incident light, the lens element and incident surface being arranged such that the transmitted light incident on the lens element is substantially refracted so as to appear of substantially uniform intensity.
Advantageously this gives the sun blind assembly an appearance of uniform light from inside the vehicle, but with reduced transmission of heat.